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Stand With Ayman Nour

(Washington Post) Egypt's Ayman Nour, a 41-year-old member of parliament and a secular democrat, is back in prison, having been deprived by fraud of his parliamentary seat. On Saturday, an Egyptian judge notorious for handling Mubarak's dirty work is expected to sentence him to prison. Nour is one of Egypt's foremost proponents of a secular liberal democracy, credited with 8% of the vote in the presidential election. The charge against him, forgery, was proved a fabrication five months ago, when one of the principal witnesses recanted in court, saying he had been forced by state security police to invent his testimony. If Bush's commitment to freedom fighters means anything at all, he cannot allow this blatant act of injustice to go unchallenged. Each year, the U.S. provides Mubarak's regime with $1.8 billion in military and economic aid; without that money for his generals it's doubtful the aged president could remain in office. Mubarak's vindictive persecution of Nour, whom he perceives as a political rival to his son Gamal, has outraged much of Egypt's political establishment, which would quietly welcome U.S. intervention. The imprisonment of Nour will provide Bush with an opportunity - and an imperative - to fight for the cause of democracy in the heart of the Arab Middle East. Standing with Ayman Nour means standing against military aid for Mubarak until this democratic reformer is free.
2005-12-23 00:00:00
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